Neha Patil (Editor)

Immediate Media Company

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Industry
  
Publishing house

Website
  
www.immediate.co.uk

Founded
  
1 November 2011

Key people
  
CEO Tom Bureau

Number of employees
  
1,100

Parent organization
  
Hubert Burda Media

Immediate Media Company wwwimmediatecoukwpcontentuploads201405IMM

Predecessor
  
Magicalia, BBC Magazines, Origin Publishing

Subsidiaries
  
Jewellery Maker, Immediate Media Company Magicalia Limited, Origin Publishing, Hitched Limited

Immediate Media Company Limited (styled as Immediate Media Co) is a combined publishing house containing the former assets of Origin Publishing, Magicalia and BBC Magazines. It was formed on 1 November 2011 and is owned by Exponent Private Equity. Immediate Media Co. publishes over 70 interest-based, multi-platform brands, maintains over 50 websites, and employs over 1100 staff in its offices in Hammersmith, London, Bristol, Redditch, Camberley and Manchester. Immediate is the current publisher of a diverse range of publications, including the Radio Times, Gardens Illustrated and BBC Top Gear Magazine. Tom Bureau - who has a background in digital media as well as traditional publishing - is Immediate's CEO. 60% of Immediate's profit is generated by the Radio Times, which is now spearheading the company's moves into online retailing. In 2017, Immediate Media Company was bought by Hubert Burda Media

Contents

BBC Magazines

One of the components that formed Immediate was BBC Magazines, the magazine publishing division of BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC. The corporation had a long history of publishing magazines including the Radio Times which dates back to 1923. In 2007 BBC Magazines dropped plans to launch an international news-based magazine with the working title Newsbrief tied closely with the BBC's flagship current affairs programme, Newsnight. In late 2011 the BBC's magazine-publishing business was sold to Exponent Private Equity following the clearance by the Office of Fair Trading of the purchase. It is now part of the Immediate Media Company and BBC Magazines titles are published by Immediate under licence from BBC Worldwide.

Magicalia Limited

Another component that made up Immediate was Magicalia Limited, a digital cross-media publisher and platform provider, based in London, England. In late 2011 the assets of Magicalia were combined with those of Origin Publishing and BBC Magazines to form Immediate. Tom Bureau, CEO of Magicalia, became the Chief Executive of the new company. Magicalia was founded in 1999 as a digital-only publisher by entrepreneurs by Adam Laird and Jeremy Tapp with its inaugural website, bikemagic.com. In 2000, Magicalia started to help publishers create and publish their own websites, with clients such as Runner's World (Rodale). The following year, Magicalia started building ecommerce platforms for retailers who wanted to create an online presence. In 2006 Magicalia was acquired by Exponent Private Equity for £13m, which was closely followed by the acquisition of Encanta Media. Encanta published 9 special-interest magazines, and Magicalia wanted to create a cross-media strategy incorporating both print titles and online sites. Former CNET Networks UK MD Tom Bureau joined as CEO and Duncan Tickell as MD Publishing from Incisive Media.

Future plc

In May 2014 Immediate announced its acquisition of Future plc's sport and craft titles in a £24 million deal, acquiring 130 staff. The sport portfolio included the websites Bikeradar.com and Cyclingnews.com and the magazines Cycling Plus, Procycling and Mountain Biking UK. The craft titles included Love Patchwork and Quilting, Simply Knitting, Mollie Makes and the lifestyle brand The Simple Things.

Hitched.co.uk

In January 2015, Immediate acquired Hitched.co.uk, a UK wedding planning brand, along with a staff of 18.

Jewellery Maker

In November 2015 Immediate acquired its first television property, Jewellery Maker, a TV and online commerce platform, from the Genuine Gemstone Company, adding to its Crafts and Arts portfolio. Tom Bureau said that Immediate was looking to expand into TV, video and e-commerce. Jewellery Maker employed over 100 people at the time of its acquisition.

TV

  • Radio Times
  • Radio Times is a British weekly television and radio programme listings magazine. It was the world's first broadcast listings magazine when it was founded in 1923 by John Reith, the then general manager of the BBC. It was published entirely in-house by BBC Magazines from 1937 until 2011 when the BBC Magazines division was merged into Immediate Media Company.

    Sport

  • 220 Triathlon
  • BikeRadar
  • Cycling News
  • Cycling Plus
  • Mountain Biking UK
  • Outdoors Magic
  • ProCycling
  • Urban Cyclist
  • What Mountain Bike
  • Homes & Gardening

  • BBC Gardener's World
  • Gardens Illustrated
  • Homes & Antiques
  • Crafts

  • Cardmaking & Papercraft
  • Cross Stitch Crazy
  • Cross Stitch Gold
  • Get Into Craft
  • Jewellery Maker
  • Knit Today
  • Love Crochet
  • Love Patchwork & Quilting (launched 2013)
  • Mollie Makes
  • Papercraft Inspirations
  • Quick Cards Made Easy
  • Simply Crochet
  • Simply Knitting
  • Simply Sewing (launched September 2015)
  • The Knitter
  • The World of Cross Stitching
  • Today's Quilter (launched September 2015)
  • Ultimate Cross Stitch
  • We Love Craft
  • Motoring

  • BBC Top Gear
  • Parenting

  • Junior
  • Made For Mums
  • Food & Travel

  • BBC Easy Cook
  • BBC Good Food
  • Lonely Planet Traveller
  • Olive
  • Weddings

  • Hitched.co.uk
  • Perfect Wedding
  • You & Your Wedding
  • History & Music

  • BBC History
  • BBC Music
  • History Revealed
  • Who Do You Think You Are?
  • Science & Nature

  • BBC Countryfile
  • BBC Focus Magazine
  • BBC Sky at Night
  • BBC Wildlife
  • Youth & Children

  • Andy's Amazing Adventures
  • BBC CBeebies
  • BBC CBeebies ART
  • BBC CBeebies Something Special
  • BBC CBeebies Swashbuckle
  • BBC CBeebies The Furchester Hotel
  • BBC Match of the Day Magazine
  • BBC Top of the Pops Magazine
  • Clangers
  • DreamWorks Magazine
  • Girl Talk
  • Girl Talk ART
  • Go Jetters
  • Hey Duggee
  • Horrible Histories
  • In The Night Garden
  • LEGO Bionicles
  • LEGO Elves
  • LEGO Friends
  • LEGO Legends of Chima
  • LEGO Nexo Knights
  • LEGO Ninjago
  • MEGA!
  • Mike The Knight
  • Mister Maker
  • Octonauts
  • Peter Rabbit
  • Skylander's Universe
  • Toybox
  • Awards

    Immediate Media Company won a number of awards in the two years 2014–15, including the Media Company of the Year award in 2015 at the British Media Awards. Immediate and its brands have also received awards at the PPA Awards, the BSME Awards, and the AOP Awards.

    References

    Immediate Media Company Wikipedia